Infant CPR: How to Do CPR on a Baby Under 1

When to call 999 or 911

If a baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call 999 in the UK or 911 in the US and start CPR. The Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) changed its guidance in 2025: call 999 immediately if a baby is unresponsive, before checking for breathing, using your phone's speaker, so the call handler can guide you. Its three steps for anyone untrained are check, call, CPR.

• Someone else with you: they call while you start CPR, then fetch a defibrillator (AED) if there is one.
• Alone with a phone: put it on speaker and follow the call handler.
• Alone without a phone: RCUK says a single rescuer without a mobile phone "should perform CPR for 1 min before going to seek help", and the NHS and St John Ambulance say the same. St John Ambulance adds: take the baby with you.

This page covers babies under 1, the age group RCUK and the American Heart Association (AHA) call "infants". For a baby less than 24 hours old outside hospital, RCUK uses its newborn guidance.

Infant CPR steps (UK, Resuscitation Council UK 2025)

These steps follow RCUK's 2025 paediatric basic life support guidelines, published on 27 October 2025.

1. Make sure it is safe for you and the baby.
2. Check for a response by speaking and touching. RCUK says not to use painful stimuli.
3. Call 999 (or have someone call), using the phone's speaker.
4. Open the airway. Lay the baby on their back, on a firm surface if one is to hand. Keep the head in a neutral position by slightly tilting it and lifting the chin with two fingers on the chin bone, without pressing on the soft tissue under the chin.
5. Check breathing for no more than 10 seconds: look for chest movement, listen and feel for air. If in any doubt, act as if breathing is not normal. The NHS adds that gasping is not normal breathing.
6. Give five rescue breaths. Seal your mouth over the baby's mouth and nose and blow steadily for about 1 second, enough to make the chest visibly rise, then let it fall.
7. Start chest compressions immediately on the lower half of the breastbone, using the two-thumb encircling technique: hands around the chest, both thumbs on the breastbone. Push down by at least one third of the depth of the chest, at 100 to 120 a minute, letting the chest rise fully between compressions.
8. Keep going at 30 compressions to 2 breaths. RCUK says to use 15:2 only if you are specifically trained in paediatric basic life support.
9. Use an AED as soon as a second person brings one, in paediatric mode if it has one. If you are alone, calling and CPR come before fetching an AED.
10. Do not stop unless the baby shows clear signs of life, the AED tells you to, or help takes over.

If the baby is unresponsive but clearly breathing, RCUK says keep the airway open or use the recovery position, checking breathing at least every minute.

What changed in 2025

Both guideline bodies dropped the two-finger technique for compressions in 2025.

• RCUK (UK): its 2025 guidelines recommend "the two-thumb encircling method for chest compressions instead of the traditional two-finger approach", and calling 999 before checking breathing.
• AHA (US), with the American Academy of Pediatrics: the 2025 guidelines say "the use of 2 fingers along the sternum was eliminated due to ineffectiveness in achieving proper depth". Rescuers should use either the heel of one hand or the two thumb–encircling hands technique, and the heel of one hand if they cannot encircle the chest.

You will still find two fingers on some UK pages. The NHS page on resuscitating a child (last reviewed 21 May 2026) and St John Ambulance's baby CPR page (clinically reviewed 28 April 2025) describe two fingers, about 4 cm deep. In an emergency, follow the call handler's instructions.

UK and US infant CPR compared

The AHA accepts that breathing problems are the main cause of cardiac arrest in babies, but keeps compressions first for "a consistent approach" with adult CPR, citing evidence of only a small delay to the first breath. Both bodies want breaths given. RCUK says call handlers should encourage breaths and compressions, with compression-only CPR if a bystander cannot give breaths; the AHA says breaths improve survival, and compression-only CPR is reasonable if you are unable or unwilling to give them.

If your baby is choking

RCUK says to suspect choking if a baby cannot cry aloud, especially during feeding or play, and to call an ambulance as soon as possible. Give up to five back blows between the shoulder blades, with the baby face down along your forearm, resting on your leg, head lower than the chest. If that fails, lay the baby on their back on your knees and give up to five chest thrusts, using the two-thumb technique but sharper than CPR compressions. Repeat the cycle. Never sweep blindly in the mouth. If the baby becomes unconscious, start CPR with five rescue breaths. The AHA adds that abdominal thrusts are not recommended for babies. The difference between gagging and choking is in choking vs gagging, and objects that are swallowed rather than inhaled are in a baby who swallowed something.

Spot a seriously ill baby early

RCUK says cardiac arrest in children usually follows worsening breathing or circulation problems, or a neurological emergency, and tells parents to call immediately for a baby who is hard to rouse, floppy or having a seizure, is working hard to breathe or making grunting noises, or whose skin is blue, mottled, very pale or greyish; on darker skin, look at the palms, soles and inside the mouth. See blue lips or skin in a baby, breath-holding spells and when to call a doctor or emergency services.

Book an infant CPR course

The NHS says it is "highly recommended that every parent or carer goes on a first aid course", and RCUK says all parents and caregivers should be encouraged to learn basic first-aid life-saving procedures. Depth and rhythm are learned on a manikin, not from a page. Check that a course teaches the 2025 technique. Soothing a baby who will not stop crying is a different skill, covered in PURPLE crying and shaken baby syndrome.

Frequently asked questions

What is the compression-to-breath ratio for infant CPR?

In the UK, RCUK says 30 compressions to 2 breaths, or 15:2 if you are specifically trained in paediatric basic life support, after five initial rescue breaths. In the US, the AHA says 30:2 for a single rescuer and 15:2 when there are two rescuers.

How deep should you compress an infant's chest?

By at least one third of the depth of the chest. The AHA says this is about 1.5 inches (4 cm) in infants. RCUK gives no centimetre figure for babies but says never to go deeper than 6 cm at any age. Let the chest rise fully between compressions.

What age range does infant CPR cover?

Babies under 1 year old. RCUK uses "infant" for babies up to their first birthday, and the AHA for those younger than about 1 year, excluding newborns at birth, who have separate newborn resuscitation guidance. From 1 year, child CPR techniques apply.

Where should you check the pulse in an infant?

Unless you are a healthcare professional, you don't. The AHA says lay rescuers should start CPR for any infant who is unresponsive, not breathing normally and showing no signs of life, without checking a pulse; professionals may check for up to 10 seconds. RCUK and the NHS look for signs of life: movement, coughing or normal breathing.